54 million Americans falsely classified as fat or obese

The findings concluded that of the people on record as overweight, over 47 percent were actually healthy.

By James Carlin |
Mar 07, 2016

The Body Mass Index has for a long time been used to measure the health status of an individual. It calculates this by dividing someone's height by the square of their weight. Experts for a long time have believed that a certain weight range is only suitable for certain heights.New studies show that this system may be false and inaccurate. "This should be the final nail in the coffin for BMI, " said Jeffrey Hunger, writer, and publisher of the paper in the controversial body mass index system. "Some healthy people could be penalized based on a faulty health measure, while the unhealthy people of average weight will fly under the radar and won't get charged more for their health insurance."The researcher used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to analyze other important aspects of health to IBM. The essential elements of the research were; cholesterol levels, blood pressure and glucose levels.The findings concluded that of the people on record as overweight, over 47 percent were actually healthy. Of the people labeled as obese, the researcher recorded that around 30 percent were healthy. In a twist of irony, over 30 percent of individuals who were labeled as healthy by IBM were not.From the findings, the researchers concluded that over 54 million Americans were actually healthy. The new investigation would help revise health insurance policy and general medical expenses of the people who were thought to be unhealthy and obese.

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